The trial commenced in Riverside County Superior Court, case RIF147001. The Honorable Christian F. Thierbach, presiding.
The prosecution presented 6 witnesses.
Alyssa testified that Jeff touched her. Her story changed on a number of points and she fell apart on cross examination.
One of the funiest parts of the whole trial was on redirect by Deputy DA, Alan Smith.
Time after time, Alyssa was confronted with the fact that what she had just testified to wasn't what she had said before.
When she tried to claim that her story hadn't changed, Jeff's attorney, Linda Petrovitch, would whip out the transcripts and ask if she would like to refresh her memory, before forcing her to admit her story had changed.
On cross, Smith asked if she had had a chance to read the transcripts before testifying? No. Was she even aware there were transcripts? No.
As if that would explain it all away. "Gee, you can't possibly expect her to remember what she said 2 years ago without looking at the transcripts, can you?"
Here's a news flash for you Smith; People who tell the truth don't need to read the transcripts of what they said before!
Can you remember where you were on 9/11/01 when the planes hit the twin towers without looking at transcripts of what you said before? Of course you can.
Ashlee also testified about being touched, but was forced to admit she said it all might have been a dream.
She initally tried to deny it, but out came those pesky transcripts.
Ashlee also changed a key part of her story.
She originally told the DA's office that Jeff touched her vagina while they were all in bed for the night to sleep. (Which would be Michael Jackson creepy)
The defense subpoenaed Jeff's then girlfriend to testify that Jeff did not sleep with the girls. He slept with her in a separate room.
Either because she was warned there was a witness to contradict her story, or because she suffers from a bad memory and she can't remember what she said before, she testified that Jeff touched her while she pretended to be asleep.
Petrovice forced her to admit that her story changed, but didn't follow up by asking why she would pretending to be asleep? Or if Destiny, who was right there in the same bed, was also pretending to be asleep?
I will eventually post a detailed analysis of their testimony, but the main purpose of this blog isn't to show that Alyssa and Ashlee were lying. The jurrors themselves stated on the record that they had credibility issues with both Alyssa and Ashlee's stories.
This blog is to show that Jeff did not get a fair trial.
He was not allowed to present a defense whem the jury wad told that Jeff had a prior for possession of child pornography and therefor had a propensity to molest children.
That is the ONLY reason he was convicted.
Witness 2 was Kathie. She was
asked if she had any motive to lie about this whole thing, she claimed to hold no hard feelings against Jeff.
Later, when asked if she had recently been talking to Alyssa about Jeff when this all came about, she said "No, his name is not to be spoken in my house." Which kind of sounds like there were some hard feelings.
Then she got caught lying about Alyssa's grades dropping after Jeff got out of prison. Turns out that she made that whole thing up.
Witness 4 was Ashlee's mom, Kimberly. She testified that due to her heavy drug use, she can't remember back that far.
She claimed not even to have talked to Ashlee about what happened, even though Ashlee told the police that she had.
Witness 5, Destiny, testified that she was never touched sexually by Jeff.
She also didn't support Ashley's claims of being touched on the trip to Jeff's house to swim. She was there the whole time and didn't see a thing.
She too claimed some memory issues due to some antidepressants she was prescribed.
Witness 6, Jackie, was the last to testify. She was the world's fastest witness. Up there just long enough to claim that she too has memory problems due to a medical condition.
Jeff states that if their memories were in tact, they would all be forced to testify that both Alyssa and Ashlee never showed any reluctance to be around him. That, in fact, the were always excited to see him and would come running out the door to meet him in the driveway when he pulled up.
He denies touching them in a sexual way and is still very hurt at the accusation.
